Improving transitions between clinical placements.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education
• Digital Learning Environments

Background:

• Clinical placements involve frequent transitions for students, causing stress due to unfamiliar environments.
• Variations in induction processes across teaching hospitals create inconsistencies in student preparation.
• Standardizing and optimizing clinical site inductions is crucial for reducing cognitive overload.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize and standardize clinical site induction processes for students.
• To address the significant variation in induction practices across affiliated teaching hospitals.

Main Methods:

• Developed dynamic, quality-assured induction websites for each hospital site.
• Informed website design using a conceptual framework of the clinical learning environment and sociomateriality theory.
• Co-produced websites with students and stakeholders through iterative evaluation cycles.

Main Results:

• Student focus groups (n=19) indicated websites were useful and easy to use.
• The induction websites addressed a significant unmet need for accessible placement information.
• Technology Acceptance Model informed the development and evaluation of website usability.

Conclusions:

• Induction websites, co-designed with stakeholders and informed by theory, can effectively optimize clinical learning environments.
• Websites can be proactively shared with students to support in-person inductions.
• Further research should investigate the impact of enhanced inductions on student engagement and satisfaction.